Jesse muttered a prayer or a string of curses. Maybe both.
We pulled out of the lot, the night swallowing us whole, and something ugly twisted in my gut.
As we drove back to the estate in near silence, a plan started to form in my head. I hadn’t wanted to involve Kaylor, but Rusty founda way to make sure I had no choice but to bring her. My fingers curled in my lap. It was either that or I would lose my shit, start beating on the car. I never wanted her anywhere near him.
There had to be another way.
Maybe she could draw us a map, but when she knew what I was doing, she would refuse to be left behind.
By the time we pulled up to the house, my side was screaming, but the thoughts in my head were louder.
We spilled into the foyer. “I’ll loop in Brock,” Raine said, already reaching for his phone. “See what the Elite can cover on their end. Maybe he’ll know something about this cabin.”
“I’ll pull what we need before we hit the road,” Maddox offered, taking off down the hall.
Mason clapped my shoulder, careful of my injury. “You get Kaylor. I’ll entertain our guest.”
I took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the way my vision fuzzed for a second from the strain. Kaylor’s door at the end of the hall was cracked open, and this horrible feeling pitched in my gut. “Little raven?” I called quietly, knuckles brushing the wood as I pushed it wider, only to find the room empty.
Her bed was made, blankets smooth, pillows in place. Textbooks were stacked neatly on the desk beside her laptop, and the hoodie was missing from the back of the chair.
A cold finger dragged down my spine.
She could be in a number of places. My room. Or with Amelia in the kitchen. I had no reason to panic…yet.
“Kaylor?” I said, louder this time, stepping across the hall toward my room. No answer.
My heart started a slow, heavy pounding against my ribs at the sight of the closed door. The bad feeling in my gut tripled. I nudged the door open with two fingers, and the first thing I saw was the rumpled sheet on the bed, still bearing the vague outline of where I’d crashed earlier. The second was the nightstand, one drawer slightly parted, a corner of wood not quite flush withthe rest.
I yanked it open, staring at the spot where my gun should’ve been, loaded and ready. It wasn’t. Only the faint impression of its shape remained. The world went utterly, perfectly silent before the roar came back all at once, like someone had turned the volume up on reality. “Fuck,” I hissed, slamming the drawer shut so hard the lamp rattled. Pain shot through my side, white-hot and blinding. I rode it out.
She wouldn’t.
She wouldn’t go after him alone. Not when she knew what he was capable of. Not after what she’d been through…
But another voice nagged in my head. The one that said she would do anything to keep the people she loved safe.
And that included me.
I saw her face again, the way she’d looked at my stitches, at the bruises on my ribs. The way she’d clung to me and whispered that she couldn’t do this without me into my chest.
She thought she was the problem, the reason everyone kept getting hurt. Knowing Kaylor, she’d walk straight into hell.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, dragging me back from the edge. I ripped it out so fast I nearly dropped it. “Evan.”
“She’s on the move.”
Everything inside me went still.Fuck.
My voice dropped. “Where are you?”
“Tailing her. She hasn’t caught on yet. We’re heading south on Cumberland.” A pause—too long. “And she isn’t alone.”
“Did you recognize who she’s with?” The demand rushed out of me.
“Her friend Carson Ward,” Evan replied.
My hand pressed to the wall.What?That made zero sense. After everything he’d done, why would she go with him? Unless he tricked her or worse, took her by force, but Evan made it sound like she got into his car willingly.
